Dear SELF Member,

In the course of reviewing your risk financing programs do you ask "How high should my liability limits be?" More succinctly, "How much is enough?" By what measure do you make the determination? Is it a matter of reviewing past loss history and figuring if you haven't had a million dollar loss you never will? Or, is it a matter of reviewing your exposures to loss (number of busses) factor in a severity scenario (accident with multiple injuries and deaths) estimate frequency (how many bus trips a year) and then selecting a coverage limit that will offer you the risk manager's goal of a "good nights sleep"?

Since SELF provides two core program limits to its members, $14 million excess $1 million or $10 million excess $5 million, does this then become the default ceiling of coverage limits? Are limits of 10-15 years ago valid today? Are medical costs receding and jury verdicts reducing? Hardly!

I encourage all members to take a moment to review SELF's Optional Excess Liability Program (OELP) by visiting SELF's web site and reviewing the various optional liability limits and then "add the numbers" to get an idea of cost. Currently 335 of SELF's members representing 30% of SELF's ADA utilize one or more of the OELP layers. It's simply a matter of due diligence to compute the cost of adding an OELP layer if only to be able to answer the question, "What would it have cost for an additional $10 million in limits?" should you ever be faced with that $20-25 million dollar loss exposure. As a final note, members may join SELF's OELP program at any time during the fiscal year!

Tom Osborne
Executive Director